Valorem SAS opens Picardy wind farm

The project supports France’s target to produce 23 per cent of its power from renewable energy sources by 2020.

In its latest renewable energy plan, the French Ministry for Sustainable Development set an objective to generate 25,000MW of its power through wind energy by 2020, where 19,000MW would be generated by onshore wind farms.

For the project, eight of GE’s 2.5MW wind turbines are operating at two sites, in the villages of Laucourt and Beuvraignes in the Picardy region.

More than 400MW of wind energy is already being produced in the region, accounting for approximately 25 per cent of Picardy’s residential electricity consumption, according to Syndicat des Energies Renouvelables, the French renewable energy union.

The project is estimated to generate more than 55,000MWh of renewable electricity annually for the power grid of French utility, EDF.